Alumni Association of Toronto

Branch Board
Co-President Membership: Sarah Bovaird
Co-President Programs: Jeff Butler
Vice-President Membership: David Wylie
Vice-President Programs: Jenny Reich
Past President: Jodie Katz
Treasurer: Victor Pywowarczuk
Secretary: Kathy Withers
Director, Regional Activities: Mary Usher-Jones
Members of the Board: Aviva Mayers, Jaclyn Seidman, Carol Norsworthy, Julie Frahar
Directors of Communications: Devin Glowinski and Andrew Barkman
Young Alumni Reps: Sila Gurmen, Keeley Doherty, Patrick Gervais
Nominating Committee: Sarah Bovaird, Jodie Katz, Brant Hinkey

Dear Alumni and Friends,

It’s hard to believe that another year is already well under way. We don’t know about you, but we both find time seems to be moving faster than ever! We hope you were all able to get together with loved ones to celebrate the holidays.

This year will be a busy one for our alma mater. McGill is preparing to bid farewell to Professor Heather Munroe-Blum, who will be concluding her second five-year term as Principal and Vice-Chancellor in June. She is going out on a high note, having been selected to receive the Chief Executive Leadership Award by the Washington-based Council for Advancement and Support of Education. The award was presented in January in Boston, recognizing her distinguished service to McGill and her wider contributions to post-secondary education.

Thanks to the generosity of more than 91,000 donors to date, McGill is on track to exceed its Making History fundraising campaign target.  This is great news, of course, but with unexpected government cuts to Quebec universities and a continuing tuition freeze, it will be critical to maintain the campaign’s momentum going forward.

There are lots of advantages to membership in the McGill Alumni Association (and as a graduate, you are automatically a member), including the opportunity to participate in a special travel program. Trips are open to your family and friends and the Alumni Association has put together a spectacular package of travel destinations for 2013. There’s a trip for every taste, whether you’re up for a tour of South American vineyards or a Baltic cruise featuring lectures by Mikhail Gorbachev and Lech Walensa. If armchair travel is more your style, it’s always fun to browse through the program brochure (aoc.mcgill.ca/travel) and to check out the blogs and photos from McGill travellers.

The Alumni Online Community is a great source for news of graduates and the University. Don’t forget the McGill News website which offers award-winning writing and new stories. Because of postage and printing costs, the magazine is now published only twice a year, but the content of the online edition is regularly refreshed. You can also follow the News on Twitter at @McGillNewsMag.

Your local branch and the McGill Alumni Association offer a variety of events and learning opportunities, and we hope you will join us. We are putting a ‘McGill centric’ focus on our events this year and hope that this new format will allow alumni to create more connections and reconnect with old friends. We hope you are able to join us at one of our upcoming events!  If you have ideas for events that you would like to see, please don’t hesitate to let your local executive know about them. If you’d like to volunteer at an event, send us an email to advise of your interest.

With best wishes for 2013,

Sarah Bovaird, BSc’05, Co-President of Membership
Jeff Butler, BA’96, Co-President of Programs
Toronto [dot] alumni [at] mcgill [dot] ca

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